It is quite hot inside the Graf Moltke waste dump. Temperatures of up to 450 °C have been measured at times. The reason for this is a smouldering fire that RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, has been tackling with extensive clean-up measures since 2022. Now the second construction phase is beginning – as part of the final operation plan (Figure 1). After completion of the work, the Gladbeck landmark is to be handed over to the Ruhr Regional Association as a place for leisure and as a habitat for flora and fauna.
In 2022/23, the Wittringer Mühlenbach was piped over a length of approximately 180 m. In addition, specialists applied an approximately 7 m high embankment. In the second phase of the waste dump remediation, which is now to follow, around 300,000 t of soil masses will have to be moved. These serve to stabilise the embankment, to seal the waste dump body up to the top of the waste dump against further oxygen ingress and to cover it.
“We expect the construction work to take between twelve and fourteen months,” says project engineer Ulrich Ostrawsky. As before, the heap will continue to be monitored to verify the success of the clean-up. “The temperature drop in the “hot” areas will certainly take more than another ten years.” In this context, Simone Konzelmann-Krause, head of RAG’s remediation management, emphasises: “RAG continues to bear responsibility for the ongoing groundwater remediation, the groundwater and the necessary monitoring of the heap fire as part of its perpetual obligations.”
The Graf Moltke waste dump is located in the urban area of Gladbeck, in the immediate vicinity of the B224 federal highway and the A2 motorway. It is bordered by the Kösheide and Welheimer Mark streets to the south, the Brauck industrial park to the north and the Wittringer Mühlenbach stream to the west. This meant that the remediation of the mine dump fire took place in a very confined space, and the expansion of the B224 to the A52 motorway still had to be taken into account in the planning. (RAG/Si.)
